We'll be in DC the first week of April and are staying at the Grand Hyatt Washington which is about 7 blocks from the Mall. Parking is $26 and I was wondering if there are any cheaper places to park anywhere in that area. I was thinking of checking at the convention center 3 blocks away. Another idea was to have my husband drop us and our luggage off and park farther away and he can take the metro right to the Hyatt. We won't need our car until we leave and we're staying long enough that the cost does add up.

Not sure about overnight parking at the convention center but long-term parking at National airport is $10/day. You could drop your bags off in town, drive the 6 miles to the airport, and Metro back very easily.

Can't help with parking but can you delay renting the car until you need to use it? You won't need it in DC so maybe you could just pick it up when you're ready for the outlying areas. That's what we did and it worked great.
Realize you may be driving in from somewhere in rental and not have that option, but the metro makes it easy to do if your renting there.

Several parking lots along L Street NW go for $ 9 a day if you park by 10 AM. However, most of these close at 7 PM.

There's overnight parking at Union Station, too -- $16 for 24 hours. So for a week, that's $70 for DCA, $112 for Union Station, $182 for the hotel.

I am assuming you must have this car with you, otherwise I'd get rid of it or not bring it to begin with. If you have to have it, I don't think you are going to save much by trying to find some other place to park right nearby, as the prices don't vary that much and many won't allow overnight parking, anyway.

The airport is a good idea, I think, although you'll spend some time getting to/from the car and the metro station. For the midrange, I'd suggest parking at Union Station as they do allow overnight parking and it's only $16 a day there, right on a metro line, and not that far from the Hyatt. That's probably what I would do if I were you.

Trying to park on the street and/or use satellite lots in DC is a pain in the rear. I did it at a conference a couple years ago because parking was $30-ish a day and I was on a tight budget. You may find a parking lot owner/attendant who will let you overnight park even though their lots close around 7pm. But if you need your car in the evening you are out of luck. If you park at the airport or Union Station, don't forget to factor in the cost of Metro tickets to and from.

DC is one of the strangest cities I've been in -- there's not "dodgy end" of town -- it can vary on the same block. Parking on the street or in a satellite lot is definitely risky but can save you money if you want to put up with the hassle.

I only suggest airport or train station parking for visitors who would leave the car there for their entire visit of more than several days. For a shorter stay (up to three days or so), or if the car is to be used during the visit, the hassle factor of distant parking is considerable. But for a longer stay and a saving of $100, the inconvenience of one round trip via Metro isn't great.

We are coming from Illinois so have to deal with the car at some point. I am passing this on to my driver (husband) to see what he thinks we should do. Thanks so much for all the info.

Additionally, you could park at a suburban metro with a park and ride area. The cost at my local metro stop is $3.75 a day, which is much better than anything you will find in DC. I would figure out which lines are close to the Hyatt, and go to the metro website (www.wmata.com), find a metro with parking on that line and leave your car there.

but not all metro parking lots permit overnight parking, read the descriptions of each station carefully . . .

I see that I mis-stated this -- the issue is not so much overnight parking per se, but multiple day parking. Here's what the WMATA website says:

Multiple day parking is available at three stations: Greenbelt, Huntington and Franconia-Springfield. Each of these stations has between 15 and 17 spaces allocated for multi-day use of up to 10 days, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

These spaces, located inside the regular facilities and not at the metered (kiss and ride) spaces are at:

1. Level 1J at Franconia station
2. The South Lot at Huntington station (This is the lot, not the garage off N. Kings Hwy)
3. Cherrywood Lane side at Greenbelt station

parking on f st and new jersey used to be 12/day it's the hall of states bldg. only a couple of blocks from union station. that's where i put my car ( it's also the cspan bldg) very convenient. turn right on to f off of north capitol as you head towards the capitol

We just returned and although we didn't get to investigate some of these ideas, I will mention a few things I found out. Street parking was free on Sat. after 6:30pm thru Sunday as long as you move your car before 7 a.m.Monday. Also there was parking for $16 a block south of the Hyatt. They didn't usuallly do overnight but were happy to take our $16 each time and the Hyatt lot was full most of the week anyway and self park there was $20. Be careful of street parking though because if you read my most recent post we got a $100 ticket and unless we can resolve it we didn't gain anything by shopping around.